A/N: The Schmidt family has a difficult road ahead of them, with Fazbear Entertainment, Glitchtrap, and Vanny all capable of fucking shit up in a big way. I think it's time I give them a little reprieve for now.

One of my reviewers in particular has been requesting that I introduce the ghost kids to church, and since this story is based on Christian themes I think that this is a reasonable request. This is a bit of an experiment for me as a writer, and we'll see whether or not I can do this in a way that satisfies the viewers and ties the sermon to both the ghost kids' character development and their situation with FNaF. I have tried my best to present a sermon that encourages virtue and being a good person in general and avoid being excessively preachy or, God forbid, pretentious.

I've also recently heard about the rather…controversial news that came out recently regarding Scott Cawthon. The only thing I'll say is that I will wait for Scott to respond before I come up with my own judgments, and that I will NOT be discussing politics of ANY kind, either in the fic itself or in the reviews. I will DELETE any and all reviews that attempt to bring up politics. This is your first and ONLY warning.

Oh, and on a happier note: it's my birthday either today or yesterday, depending on whether this is posted on June 10 or the day after. Happy birthday to me :P

Wall: Thank you! And no, I have not.

Chig Chug: No problem! Nightmare was kinda bullshitting about what he was doing in his first appearance lol, he's actually keeping his plans to himself for the most part. I actually did try to fix it myself, but it got reverted for whatever reason. Which is kinda weird since TV Tropes has accepted my other edits for MNGF. Ah, well.

Ginopippofreebooter: Not necessarily. Mike and possibly Charlie would note that something is very off about the "normal" William Afton suddenly appearing in his universe when all other evidence indicate that William should either be Glitchtrap or burning in Hell, and he would probably stop the ghost kids from trying to kill him so that they can figure out what the hell is going on. Also, this different William Afton wouldn't exude the same evil and malice that is practically oozing off the canon one. Heck, depending on how old this William is, he might not even recognize any of the kids, which by itself would be a huge red flag.

Jack0Lanterns: Yep, some degree of damage control is inevitable for a situation as fucked up as this one. At least with the path they've chosen, the Schmidts will be able to do any damage control in the first place. And speaking of Glamrock Freddy, I've heard an interesting theory that Glamrock Freddy is actually Michael Afton (whether it be his soul or a copy acting like a "good counterpart" to Glitchtrap). Which would make for a very intriguing encounter between my fic's Michael and his own soul fragment lol.

Avid Reader: Security Breach is gonna be bringing a lot to the table, that's for sure! And as for Vanny, she might be able to resist to some degree, but I don't have a lot of faith in her ability to hold out against Glitchtrap's corruption indefinitely. And since Glamrock Freddy is telling Gregory to be silent and remain hidden from her in the trailer, that seems to imply that Gregory knows Vanny is evil.

SuperDescendant101: Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time to look at other FNaF fics at the moment, though I do like reading the theories that pop up every now and then.

Deblod100: Yeah, we might know what's going on with Vanny, but the Schmidts certainly don't. It says a lot about how grim and uncertain the situation is that even Mike isn't comfortable with their predicament or with their decision on how to approach it, and this is the same guy who wasn't even slightly intimidated by Nightmare Springtrap.

Sweeting: There's not much the Schmidts can do at this point, and they know it.

MothraRanger: Unfortuantely repercussions are inevitable in a situation like this, even if you make the right decision.

AlchemyWriter: I've been neglecting the Marshalls and Melody for a while, so I wanted to bring them in even if only briefly to remind people that they still exist. And as for Glamrock Freddy, the direction I go with him will depend on how he's portrayed in Security Breach. I don't want to take a shot in the dark and write blindly only for the actual game to be drastically different from what I had written.

Fnaffan418: No I didn't actually, that's rather interesting.

Thanatos D.E.M: Fuck Fazbear Entertainment is right. And yeah, this is definitely a rough situation for the Schmidts, no matter how you look at it.

FireFlamerx9z: Better the devil you know is right, especially when the devil you don't know can be dramatically worse. Funnily enough, William was smarter as a human and, funnily enough, as Glitchtrap. The current William Afton's brainpower eroded a lot after 30 years being trapped alone inside a Spring Bonnie suit, and being tortured endlessly in Hell by the Nightmares probably took away what little intelligence was left.

DISCLAIMER: The following sermon was actually taken almost verbatim from a sermon I listened to this Sunday from my church, with some parts removed so that this chapter wouldn't end up taking 20 pages. I didn't come up with any of it, and none of it belongs to me.

Chapter 135 – A Visit to Church

In one way, Mike's sudden decision to take the ghost children with him to church that Sunday was completely unexpected. In another, it wasn't so surprising at all.

As Mike explained it, "You guys have been around demons for way too long. Yeah, Nightmare's an ally, someone who we can ironically trust, and pretty much the best we've got for dealing with the bullshit from Fazbear Entertainment and Glitchtrap, but he's still a demon lord and he's still evil. I think it's about time I bring in some Heavenly influence to balance things out and calm things down a little."

"I'm kinda curious to know what church is like," Susie admitted. "I'm surprised you haven't really gone there much at all over the past two years, especially since I know you read the Bible and we've pretty much confirmed for you that God, Heaven, and Hell all exist."

Mike shrugged. "It varies wildly," he answered as he drove away from his house. "Some churches have bigger congregations or buildings, some have smaller ones. And every pastor or preacher gives sermons differently with different messages every time, although a couple of times they have the same overlying message. I haven't gone to church in a while, but the one we're going to is one that I like and I'm on good terms with the pastor even though we haven't crossed paths very often."

"Sounds a lot better than dealing with Fazbear Entertainment, that's for sure," Jeremy deadpanned.

"Well, be careful with assumptions like that," Mike warned. "Churches can be corrupt just like governments, businesses, and any other large entities like that."

"But aren't churches supposed to be about being good?" Cassidy wondered. "Isn't that the whole point?"

"In theory, but churches are run by people too, and any human can fall to evil and corruption," Mike explained. "You guys know that better than anyone else."

"Oh, we know," Gabe replied grimly, the sins of both William Afton and themselves prominent in their minds.

"The church we're going to isn't going to have any problems like that, right?" Liz asked worriedly.

"Nah, don't worry about that," Mike quickly reassured her. "I've never seen or heard about any problems about the church we're going to."

"That's a relief!" Fritz declared. "Be nice to hang around with some good people besides our friends for a change, even if they can't see or talk to us."

"I wonder why we haven't seen any angels," Charlie mused. "I'm guessing our relatives in Heaven aren't angels, and we've seen demons, but we haven't seen any angels on Earth."

"Nightmare mentioned something about how there's very little direct supernatural influence on Earth," Mike pointed out as the distant shape of a church building appeared in the distance. "If there are angels on Earth, they're probably invisible and working behind the scenes. Heck, even Nightmare doesn't really show himself in his true form to anybody other than us."

"Then I guess we'll hear what God has to say through this pastor," Jeremy commented as Mike arrived at the church building. They could see several people already entering, with an elderly man wearing a white robe with a cross on it and a warm smile on his face.

Mike got out of the car and approached the entrance to the church, his children floating closely behind. As he passed the white-robed man, the elderly individual's smile widened. "Mr. Schmidt!" he greeted him jovially. "A pleasure to see you again! It's been a while since I've last seen you join us."

"Good to see you too, Pastor Callahan," Mike answered as he shook the man's hand. "It has been a while, hasn't it? Church has kinda slipped my mind, to be honest."

"Well, we're happy to have you here whenever you have the time," Pastor Callahan replied, inviting Mike in with a gesture of his hand. Mike walked into the church and took a seat in the back, not wanting to take a seat further up from a more regular member. At the same time, the ghosts all silenced themselves and focused on their telepathic link so that they could communicate without being heard and freaking people out.

The church itself was fairly simple building, nothing gaudy or extravagant. The walls were painted white with a purple carpet covering the paths leading down the pews over a smoothed wooden floor. There was a single wooden pulpit up on the stage in the center with a wooden Bible and a cross marked on it, along with a piano and some pews in the back for the pianist and the choir respectively. Despite the relatively simplistic fashion, the ghosts appreciated the décor. It felt warm and comforting, giving a feeling of welcome not too different than that of home.

The ghosts listened as the congregation and the choir on the stage began to sing hymns praising God. "It's been so long since God told us to come down and make things right with Dad," Gabe thought wistfully. He didn't fully remember the brief moments he had spent in Heaven, but there was this faint sense of longing within him for the paradise that he had been forced to leave.

Not that Gabe was ungrateful towards God. He knew full well that with the murders of innocents that he and most of his siblings had committed, God could have easily just tossed them all into Hell for their evil deeds and He would have had every right to do so. "We could have gotten so much worse than what God actually gave us," the former Freddy inhabitant mused. "He didn't just give us a chance to redeem ourselves, He gave us a family too. If that's not mercy, I don't know what is."

Still, with that mercy came expectations. They might not ever be able to undo their actions with regards to the innocent night guards, but they could work to make sure that another Fazbear tragedy wouldn't happen again. "We might be the only ones who can really do something to stop Glitchtrap," Gabe thought resolutely as the hymn ended. "We won't let you down, God."

The music died down, and the next few moments passed by relatively quickly. The congregation began to greet each other, and while nobody could see the ghost kids for obvious reasons, a couple of individuals did recognize and greet Mike warmly, which the man happily reciprocated. Once the exchanges were concluded, a different man stepped up and gave a few announcements, and then afterwards the offering ceremony began. The ghost kids watched as a few offering collection bags were handed to the congregation members, who began to pass the bag around, offering a few dollars in. When the bag reached Mike, he put his own offering in, a value that was almost certainly significantly higher than what most people were probably expecting.

"Why are people putting in money into that bag?" Cassidy wondered.

"It's their way of giving back to God," Charlie explained. Having lived with Mike longer than the others, she had much more exposure to church and how it worked than any of the other ghost kids. "The idea is that offering money to the church, you're helping them to do run effectively so that they can do God's work."

"How much do people usually give?" Susie asked.

Charlie shrugged. "Can be anything from a dollar to 5, 10, or even 20 dollars," she replied. "But Dad will probably give a lot more since he's a lot richer than most people here."

Fritz grinned. "They're gonna be in for a surprise when they count the money today, that's for sure!"

Once the offerings were all collected, the pastor stepped up to the podium. "Welcome, my brothers and sisters. It is always a pleasure to see us come together to worship the Lord. Please turn to Philippians 2:3 for today's scripture reading." He cleared his throat as the church members took out their Bibles. "Show humility rather than pride. Be humble, and think of others above yourself. For if you have helped a man in need, you are serving the Lord and pleasing Him."

"So the sermon's on humility today?" Jeremy asked. "That's as good of a theme as any, I guess."

"Is it just me or did that verse suddenly switch from one thing to another?" Cassidy wondered. "Like, I know that humility and helping other people are both good things, but I feel like that was a random change in topic."

"They're a lot more connected than you think," Charlie commented knowingly, giving off the aura of "big sister knowledge" that she often did.

"As you can probably guess, today's sermon is on the topic of humility and narcissism," Pastor Callahan began, the entire church falling into silence as he began his sermon. "Let us begin with narcissism. The word "narcissism" derives from the Greek myth Narcissus, a handsome Greek youth who fell in love with his own reflection as he looked into a pool of water. A word of ancient origin but a reality present in every age. Take King Louis of France, for example. He was known as Louis the Great or the Sun King. He was one of the most famous kings of France. He was so obsessed with himself and his own greatness that he even arranged everything about his own funeral. That day, in Notre Dame cathedral, there was only one light that lit the entire building. A single candle burning in front of his casket. Even in his death, King Louis XIV of France, the Sun King, King Louis the Great, wanted everyone to be focused on him. He is an example of narcissism from centuries ago."

"If that's what King Louis was like in death, I don't want to know when he was alike when he was alive," Liz muttered.

"He was honestly a pretty successful ruler, surprisingly enough," Gabe supplied, having learned about the King while looking up history in his spare time. "There were plenty of rulers who were a lot worse."

"I wouldn't be surprised if they all had egos as big as Dad's money count, though," Fritz grumbled.

"We tend to think that narcissism is only a problem for the great and famous, the celebrities both ancient and modern. But if we are really honest, our own natural tendency is to love ourselves and our own image, just like Narcissus. we've all stopped in the hallway, glanced ourselves in the mirror as we walked by. If we're really honest," Pastor Callahan insisted, "we're no different from King Louis. We also have a bent towards narcissism. We also love our own image. We also have pride. If we don't think so, it's only further evidence that we are indeed prideful. C.S. Lewis was right when he claimed that if you think that you are not conceited, then you are very conceited indeed."

The ghosts promptly felt a wave of embarrassment and even a little shame, as though Pastor Callahan had called them out for trashtalking King Louis XIV.

"Now that he calls it out like that," Susie was the first to break the silence, "the more I'm starting to think he's right. I do think selfish thoughts more often than I'd like."

"It was way, way worse back in the past," Gabe confronted the truth that needed to be said "Wanting revenge on William Afton, killing all those night guards because we wanted to get back at him…we only cared about what we wanted, and we went over selfish and straight into plain evil."

"I'm just as guilty as you guys are," Liz murmured. She wasn't afraid to admit that she had been extremely narcissistic back when she had been Circus Baby, and that pride had made her even more horrible than the rest of her siblings.

"We might not be nearly as bad as we were back then," Jeremy mused, "but I think that this is a lesson we need to learn anyway if we don't want to make those same mistakes again." Nobody disagreed with his statement.

"What was that he said about claiming that you're not conceited?" Cassidy piped up, but before any of them could think about it further Pastor Callahan drew their attention to him again.

"How do we avoid the trap of narcissism?" Pastor Callahan asked, before answering his own question, "The Bible's answer is simple. Humble ourselves. That is the answer to pride and self-love. Humility. By definition, humility is other person-centered. It's not about personal character, not about you being a humble person and being admired by others. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility find others more significant than yourself."

"That makes sense," Gabe nodded. "Being humble is the opposite of being proud, and thinking about others is the opposite of being selfish."

"Why do I feel like it's actually a lot more complicated than it looks?" Susie asked.

"Because it probably is," Fritz replied with a sigh.

"Do nothing out of rivalry and conceit," the pastor repeated the warning, "but in humility find others more significant than yourselves. Look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Rivalry means selfish ambition, conceit means empty pride. We are to do nothing out of selfish ambition and mere pretense. This is the world's attitude, each man for himself, survive of the fittest, all driven by selfish ambition and mere pretense. And Paul says we must do nothing for these reasons. Note the absolute. He doesn't say avoid some things or to not be a rival in the majority of what you do. Do nothing, absolutely nothing, out of rivalry or envy. By contrast, but in humility, be kind to others and find them more significant than yourselves."

"Geez," Jeremy shook his head. "I didn't realize rivalries could be that bad. Like, the conceit part I'm pretty sure we all already got, but when you phrase it like that, rivalries cause a lot of problems."

"I think it depends on context," Charlie suggested. "A little friendly competition between two of you in a video game doesn't really hurt anyone, and hell, it might even motivate you to improve yourself." Her eyes narrowed and her face hardened slightly, signaling the shift to more serious discussion. "But if that rivalry starts ruining your relationship, starts hurting other people who shouldn't be involved, or starts causing damage outside of the rivalry?" She shook her head. "Yeah, that's when you know a rivalry's become toxic."

"I think you're right," Liz agreed, the other ghosts nodding their own approval of their older sister's words. "Also, selfish ambition and empty pride? That's basically Fazbear Entertainment and William Afton in a nutshell," she added with a distinctly undignified snort.

The ghosts snickered as Pastor Callahan continued his sermon, completely unaware of the specters providing their commentary on his words. "And what does that mean? The answer is in the phrase itself. In humility. The world humility means "low, low to the ground." Lower yourself for others. But Paul doesn't mean lower yourself in terms of ability or capability. He doesn't mean act like you don't know what you're doing. He doesn't mean talk like you don't know what you're talking about, so you don't draw attention to yourself. That's just false modesty, that's nonsense. Putting yourself down is false modesty, it could actually mean pride when you keep putting yourself down in front of others. Because you're fishing for another compliment, the first complement wasn't big enough. Paul isn't saying talk everybody else up and talk yourself down. Humility is not low self-esteem or personal insecurity. The person who's always putting themselves down, do you know what they're doing? They're always talking about themselves."

"That's…a really good point, actually," Gabe commented, a thoughtful expression on his face. "When you put yourself down, you're still drawing attention to yourself and bringing the spotlight on you, and that's assuming that you're not putting on an act. And I can definitely see some slimy bastard trying to flatter someone else by showering them with compliments and boosting their ego, only to stab them in the back later."

"And I think Pastor Callahan was right about what humility isn't," Susie added pensively. "If you're holding back on what you're able to do or pretending like you don't know what you're doing when you really do, although you're really doing is stopping yourself from getting out there, doing things, and making a difference. That doesn't help anyone at all, and it might even hurt someone who might've needed your help. All so you can get a few more compliments from someone else."

"That being said, you might not necessarily be putting yourself down because of false modesty," Charlie pointed out. "You could also be extremely depressed and just have that low of an opinion of yourself." Liz almost flinched at this disturbingly accurate description of her early days in Mike's family, but was able to successfully keep herself together and hide her brief discomfort. "But I'm guessing that Pastor Callahan isn't talking about that exception."

"Probably not," Cassidy agreed as said pastor moved on to the next part of his sermon.

"The idea of lowering onself is related to class, to society. In Roman society, class was everything," the pastor was speaking, bringing in another historical reference to emphasize his point. "People were always treated according to their class. But Paul says, whatever your class or social standing is, treat other people as though they were the class above you. Make sure you lower yourself in the presence of others. Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, the job of a slave. It's not like Jesus didn't know who He was or forgot who He was, or that He was insecurity about His identity or ability. No, He knew exactly who He was, and chose to lower Himself for the benefit of His disciples. That is what Paul is encouraging us to do, consider others more significant than ourselves."

"I really wish we were able to meet Jesus back when we were in Heaven for that little bit," Cassidy sighed wistfully. "That would have been so cool!"

"Guess we didn't deserve that particular honor," Fritz mumbled. Not that he could blame God for that.

"We'll get that chance eventually," Charlie reassured him with an optimistic smile.

"What the pastor said about class is some good advice, I think," Jeremy offered, changing the topic. "If you treat other people as a higher class, you won't ever put your needs above theirs or ignore them to satisfy what you want."

"It also depends on who those other people are," Liz added. "Obviously, don't put another person's needs above yours if you know that person is evil." Serving William Afton had been much, much worse than being selfish, in that particular case.

"But not just consider others more significant than ourselves, look to the interests of others over your own," Pastor Callahan declared, giving this advice with a booming tone. "The thing above humility is that it is inherently other person-centered. Humility is self-sacrificial giving in service of others. It's not that the person forgets their own needs or interests. Paul says the humble person looks not only to their own interests. It's okay to be human, it's okay to look to your own interests. What Paul is saying is that we should put those interests of our own second and put the interests of others first."

"Whew," Fritz sighed with relief. "For a second I thought this guy was saying that we have to just completely forget our own interests 24/7. I'd never be able to do that, I just can't."

"I don't think ANYBODY could do that apart from Jesus," Gabe commented. "Not even Dad can, and he's one of the best people we know. Dad loves and cares about us a lot and has done so much for us, but even he has days where he needs to just go into town to take a night off from being a parent. And I don't blame him for sometimes taking a break from us in the slightest."

"You guys…I've just realized something," Susie murmured, her worried tone attracting her siblings' attention. "What we've been doing, stopping another Fazbear tragedy from happening, finding out what was going on with the VR game, all of that…have we been doing it because we care about the people who might get hurt by Fazbear Entertainment whoever got possessed by Glitchtrap, or because we want to redeem ourselves and get accepted into Heaven? Are we doing it for the right reasons?"

Nobody said anything for several seconds as they processed the former Chica inhabitant's words, letting the realization about how potentially selfish their motivations might have been sink in.

"It's not that we don't care about other people who might get wrapped up in another Fazbear tragedy," Jeremy finally decided to give his input. "I think everyone here cares about stopping other people from getting hurt, either by Glitchtrap or Fazbear Entertainment." He sighed and lowered his head a bit. "I don't think we can deny that we might have been focused more on redeeming ourselves, though."

"You guys heard what the pastor said," Charlie pointed out. "It's not that you don't need to forget about redeeming yourselves entirely. Especially since God was the one who told you that was how to do it. You just need to make sure that keeping others safe is your main priority. Think of it as a change in perspective more than anything else," she advised.

"We definitely need to keep that in mind," Cassidy agreed. "If we do this selfishly, we're only going to be hurting ourselves and everyone else." It was a statement that everyone agreed with, and one that they would certainly keeping more to the front of their minds in the future.

"It's all about focus," Pastor Callahan declared. "Where does the focus lie? With myself or with others? If it's myself, there's a chance that selfish ambition and vain conceit can slip in. If the focus is on others, then it can be true humility. C.S. Lewis was very perceptive about humility. He warns that, "Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man, he will be what most people call humble nowadays. He will not be a sort-of greasy, smarmy person telling you that of course he is nobody." Probably all will you think about the truly humble man is that he is very cheerful and intelligent man who took a real interest in you and what you have to say. If you do dislike him, it will be because you will feel jealous of a man who likes to live so easily. He will not be thinking about humility. He will not be thinking about himself at all."

Liz smiled. "That sounds a lot like Dad," she commented, her appreciation for Mike clearly evident in her voice. "Doesn't it?"

"Oh, without a doubt," Gabe readily agreed. "You've seen what he's done for Melody and the Marshalls, not to mention for us. And I don't think he ever cared about what HE got out of helping them."

"And he doesn't need to show off about it either," Susie added with a grin. "He's just chill, friendly, helpful, and takes life easy, just like the pastor said. I don't think we could have found a better person to be our Dad."

"Thanks for the glowing review," Mike telepathically communicated, interrupting their conversation for the first time. And though the words were spoken with some dryness, everyone could see the appreciation and love in his face and smile.

"That doesn't mean Dad can't have some selfish impulses or a dark side," Charlie warned. "Nobody is perfect, and that includes him."

"We know," Cassidy acknowledged grimly. "After what we saw a few days ago, we're never going to forget it."

"A good barometer of looking to the interests of others is how well we respond to other people's gifts and abilities and graces," Pastor Callahan suggested. "How do you respond when somebody else uses their abilities and gifts and expresses their ability in some way? How do you feel when somebody else is complimented about their gifts and graces?"

"I don't think I was treating our quest to stop Fazbear Entertainment and Glitchtrap as a contest," Jeremy commented, "but I'm definitely not going to now."

Fritz glanced over at Liz. "For the record," the former Foxy inhabitant complimented, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder, "I thought your Scrap Baby form and the way you used it to fight William Afton was really cool."

Liz smiled back at him. She had once considered Scrap Baby's form as nothing more than a punishment and a curse, but now she had regained enough self-respect to recognize Fritz's words for the praise they were. "Thanks, Fritz," she answered gratefully, earning a grin from her brother.

"The question is…how can we attain such humility?" Pastor Callahan asked, drawing their attention to him again. "The answer is to conform to Christ's humility. Not just imitate, but conform, because this isn't just a moral example for us to follow. Anyone can try to imitate or follow Christ's example. But what Paul really says is be conformed to the humility of Jesus, be united with His spirit. Jesus was One with God, but did not see that as an opportunity for grasping, for snatching, for taking advantage of His position. He didn't use that for self-centered ends. He didn't snatch, He served. He didn't grab, He gave. He didn't assert His rights, He gave up His rights. He humbled Himself when He came to Earth, taking the nature of a servant. He became obedient and lowered himself to the point of death, suffering one of the worst executions possible for others."

"I really, REALLY want to meet Jesus when we go back to Heaven eventually," Cassidy repeated.

"You said that already," Susie commented. Not that she disagreed with her sister.

"What's the difference between imitate and conform here?" Fritz wondered. "I don't get it."

Gabe shrugged. "I think imitate just means to copy it, but to conform to it is to accept it, embrace it, and have it become a major part of who you are," he suggested. "It's a lot harder than it sounds, and we won't ever be able to fully match it. Jesus is still an amazing role model though, definitely better than all those other selfish rulers who treated their subjects like trash." And God knows there were plenty of those

By now, Pastor Callahan was wrapping up his sermon with the finishing touches. "Humility is sacrificial self-giving for the sake of others to the glory of God," he summarized the overlying message of his sermon. "The final antidote to pride and self-love. So may God guide you to understand and reach that humility so that you may better live your life to serve and bring joy to others, just as Jesus did and just as God would ask you to do. Let us pray."

Everyone in the church bent their heads and closed their eyes, the ghost kids following a few seconds later. They began to reflect on the sermon Pastor Callahan had just given them, the lessons they had learned on pride and humility, and how they could use what they had learned to better themselves in the future.

After one final hymn, Pastor Callahan returned to the podium. "Go forth, and may the grace of God be with you in all of your days. Amen."

And with that, the service was concluded. Mike got up along with the rest of the congregation and began to leave, the ghost kids following closely behind him.

"Quite a fascinating conversation you guys had," Mike commented once they were back in his car and driving home.

"I'm surprised you didn't join in more," Charlie replied.

"Me? Nah," Mike shook his head. "I think you guys had plenty of interesting stuff to talk about by yourselves, even though you technically broke a basic rule of talking during the pastor's sermon." The words were spoken with disapproval, but the look in his eyes made it clear to everyone that he wasn't being serious about it.

"Oops…" Cassidy blushed, "glad nobody could hear us."

Mike shrugged. "If you got more out of the sermon from talking about it than just listening, then who am I to judge? That being said, it sounds you got some pretty interesting insights out of it."

"We did," Jeremy agreed. Taking a deep breath, he continued. "All of us let our pride and selfishness get the better of us in the past, and we did horrible things because of it."

"We need to be humble to not make those kinds of mistakes again in the future," Gabe continued, "and humility isn't what we thought it was. It isn't putting yourself down or hiding your talents. It's making sure you put other people's interests and needs above yourself."

"That has to be what we focus on when we deal with Fazbear Entertainment and Glitchtrap," Susie declared. "We do need to redeem ourselves and make up for all the innocent night guards we killed, but that can't be what we're thinking of first."

"The most important thing is to keep innocent people safe, and to stop them from getting harmed either by Glitchtrap or by Fazbear Entertainment's stupidity," Cassidy clenched her hands. "We can't let what happened to us happen to anyone else!"

"And we can't treat this as a competition," Fritz concluded. "It's not about who does a better job doing what. Otherwise, we might forget about the real reason we're doing this in the first place."

Mike grinned at their words. "Then it looks like bringing you to church was well worth it," he commented approvingly. "Make sure you guys don't forget what you've learned today." The grin faded slightly. "Especially with what's at stake."

"We won't," the kids chorused. And as they drove off towards Mike's house, all of them felt lighter than they had been in days. It was as though a burden had been lifted off of them and, for now, they could be at peace until duty called them again.

And all of them knew that getting some Heavenly wisdom in their lives had proved to be a very good decision indeed.

/

A/N: And that concludes the ghost kids' visit to Church. I tried to pick a sermon that (a) offered good advice on how to improve yourself as a person even if you aren't a Christian and (b) one that I could tie in with the ghost kids and the story of FNaF, both in the past and in the present. I think an exploration into the topics of pride and humility can fit both categories with a little creative application.

This was an experimental chapter, and one that was surprisingly difficult to work on. I had to relisten to the sermon for several minutes and transcribe it first, before moving it over to the fic and having the ghost kids provide their own commentary and thoughts. It was also my way of responding to a comment that one reviewer posted a while back about how they weren't sure whether or not the ghost kids were doing it to help other people or to redeem themselves. Even the children themselves probably weren't thinking about their own motives, but they certainly are now. And after this sermon, they'll make sure that when they act to stop the Fazbear tragedy, they're doing it for the right reasons.

Don't look too deep into Pastor Callahan's character, I just needed somebody to deliver the sermon. I probably won't do a chapter like this again since my schedule will get a lot busier in a few weeks and I have plenty of FNaF-related chapters that take priority. There may be one filler chapter next week, but it's more likely I'll skip it and go straight to Curse of Dreadbear.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter or learned something from it.